Gone With The Wend

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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

I don't know where to begin, except it's been almost three years since my ex-wife and I parted ways. It changed my life in ways that I couldn't possibly imagine at the time. But in time, I managed to gain "peace of mind" through solitude. I became a better man, a better father to my children, and most importantly, it strengthened my faith in God in more ways that I couldn't even fathom, and still can't. The main important factor is that I have a "sense of self" that I didn't have before, or during my marriage. It was liberating and sad to gain it when my split had taken place. I wish I had this "sense" before I married, but hindsight is 20/20 and the past is the past now. There's no reason to bring it up...only in the exception of not repeating mistakes from before.

Solitude has opened my eyes to a lot in this world and the best part is that I'm not afraid to be alone.

This is something I wanted to get off my chest for now. Hopefully if there are others that read this blog, then I would like to let them know that life doesn't end with solitude, it actually begins. Because the only person you have to deal with is yourself. I still do it from day to day. Everyday is always a new beginning learn, and experience...both good and bad.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

About a week ago, I was presented with a challenge to write a story that I haven't touched since I graduated from college back in 1994. At the time when I wrote the script, I experienced a lot of things that happened almost back to back. I lost a potential lucrative job offer over fear of the unknown. I saw co-worker die moments after talking to him a few minutes prior...which led me to write (and eventually co-produce my feature film, RECOIL) a script that forced me to deal with that fateful day. I almost lost myself to fear back in the day because once I came out of school, I was too scared to move forward with anything. I wanted to stay in my "comfort zone." But in doing so, I missed out on so many opportunities that I still regret to this very day.

Which brings me to the present...

I am afraid, once again of change, of the unknown, of new things. I just graduated from Full Sail recently with a new Master's Degree under my belt. However, the still same old fears continue to rear their heads. Most recently, I was given a challenge to re-write a story that I really didn't want to touch because it reminded me of the turmoil that I dealt with graduating from college with a Bachelor's Degree. Now, I've started the re-writing process of the story and it has now begun to have a life of its own, the more words that I feed into it. The challenge for me is to embrace the unknown and stop being so fearful of it. As a result, the story is still in its infancy, but I can see the potential for it to be greater than what it ever was when I initially wrote the story. All I have to do is overcome my fear of shortcomings, and stop being my own worst enemy to move forward into the future.

Quite a few viewers felt duped by the reality TV star and
for good reason. Shortly after wedding
was televised, within 72 days, she filed for divorce from the NBA star. With what she did, a lot of people felt like
she treated marriage like a “bad business deal” with which a lot of people in
this country hold marriage in high regards.
My take on this matter is when “enough is enough” with reality TV. Kim Kardashian’s former publicist also said
that the wedding was a “fake”. As far as
I’m concerned, the wedding should have never been televised, let alone gone
through. She’s basically sending out the
message that you can marry someone, and if you don’t like them, you can cancel
the deal. Move on. NEXT!

It's bulls#$@ but it's sadly turning into the truth.

My opinion is this, in this “throwaway” society that we live
in, the depiction of a lavish wedding is just that, for show. She has proven that with the broadcast of her
“wedding.” Its getting to the point that
“reality TV” has to be fabricated to garner larger rating numbers, which again
doesn’t make any kind of sense. Which also begs the question, “Is anything
sacred” these days? I have written about
realty TV before in my blog and how its taking away from quality TV with its
programming. I have to admit that I do
watch some reality shows on cable. But
usually, those fall under the shows that involve food, fixing up a house, or learning
tips on fixing up cars (and lets throw in Pawn Stars for good measure). But the shows like Jerseylicions,
and other shows I’m not going to mention where the women can be quite “catty”
towards one another is a bit annoying after a while. But hey that’s only my
opinion, everyone else is entitled to theirs.

Lastly, I would hope that after this Kardashian wedding
fiasco, that TV and cable channels will start looking at “quality” creative
programming again instead of looking into someone else’s life. No one wants to pay attention to the messes
in their own lives, but at the same time are willing to look at someone else’s
to avoid dealing with theirs.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

This past weekend, I just watched the Green Lantern movie
for the first time and I saw where the $200 million went in the making of the
film.Honestly, I didn’t think that the
movie was that bad to the point those critics had to bash it.At the same time, I saw that the movie could
have been “tightened up” to make a better product.All the money that they spent on the film, a
good chunk of it went to advertising, especially after seeing the ads and
displays all over Century City (here in Los Angeles for example), which I
thought was a waste because there were parts of the film that could have been
done differently instead of wasting quite a bit of money on it.I understand about promotions and everything,
however I feel that some of the money could have been used more on development
to get it “right.”Basically, Green
Lantern could have been a lot better, and would have launched the DC Comics
properties like Marvel has done with their stable of characters (like Iron Man,
Thor, etc…) but they came up short in the story department.A good chunk of money that was spent on the advertising
could have been used to hire more writers to come in and rewrite certain parts
of the film to “tighten up” certain elements, and then do away with other parts
of it that didn’t seem right or that were a bit forced to a degree.Not to give away any “spoilers,” but certain
parts, if they were written properly, would have given the movie an edge
instead of just throwing them in there for the movie’s sake.I remember watching Spider-Man 3 a few years
back, and basically, a super-villain, Venom (a major Spider-Man baddie), was
“shoe-horned” and didn’t get that much screen time (much to my dismay), and yet
again they spent quite a bit of money on it, and it was a success, it left a
bad taste in my mouth as a film goer.Just because the big studios throw a lot of money at a project, doesn’t
mean that the film is going to be any good.I always go by the adage, “what looks good on paper, doesn’t mean it’s
going to look good on film.”What I can
add in there is what looks good by spending a whole lot of money, doesn’t mean
that it’s going to “glitter” on the big screen, either.

My advice is simple…

Keep the story tight and cohesive, and then, and then maybe
then the money that is spent would be well worth it, not only to the
filmmakers, but also to the movie-going public.Don’t insult them by spending too much, to
say “its gold-looking” and all it turns out to be “lead” on the big
screen.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

I would incorporate the originality of the website’s content
as a major selling point for my business plan.
Now that we are living in a digital / information – heavy era, it would
be in my best interests to present my “best foot forward” in my business
plan. The real emphasis I would also
incorporate is the immediacy of the content.
The consumer can come to the website, and experience something that he
or she may have not seen before in that capacity, but at the same time attempt
to them involved in the content, so that they would want to come back for
more. One of the specific changes I
would make is to have the website “user-friendly.” I’ve seen too many times in the past when
people have websites, they would be frustrated trying to get to the content in
which they would seek. Simplicity would
be the key.

The sections of my business plan I think will be the most
important are when I launch the website with the digital content, keeping up
the content when it is launched, and then having the funds coming in
efficiently so that I can pay back the investors. The content of the website, HubbNubb
Productions is going to be the key factor in having the revenue come in. The content involving the stories and its
interactive content has to be tightly written, and edited properly, in both
artistically.

Otherwise, I think that website for the digital content
would be a waste of time for them to look at and they will move on to other websites
before giving HubbNubb Productions the benefit of the doubt. The revenue that will be generated, not only
will enable HubbNubb Productions to pay back its loan from the investor (or
investors if it’s more than one), but the revenue will also be the “lifeblood”
of HubbNubb Productions that will keep it going.

Friday, September 30, 2011

The two investors that I chose to write about in my blog are
Patti Brotherton and Chuck Blakemen.The
reason that I chose the two to talk about is because they remind me of my wife
and myself, respectively.

Patti Brotherton, a prominent real estate agent, prides
herself on writing down her goals for the future after each year that
passes.In that way, she set herself up
for continued success and adding to that with the extra wisdom and experience
that she has gained throughout the course of each progressive year.My wife is a lot like that because she choses
to write out her goals on getting things accomplished and goes after the
smaller goals until they lead to and ultimately accomplish the bigger ones.

Day to day, my wife creates a list on the things that need
to be done in order to run our household smoothly.But along the way there are always, “hiccups”
or “obstacles” that seem to deter her or myself from the path that she creates
from making out plans.She always goes
by the motto, “Those fail to plan, plan to fail.”Patti Brotherton and wife seem to be on the
same wavelength when it comes to these kind of things stating, “In order to get going, you need to plan
your day and get out of your chair and take action” (Brotherton, 2003).The key idea for Brotherton is planning.

On he other hand, Chuck Blakeman reminds me of myself when
it comes to handling business.He
believes in “stepping out” and handling your business goal and making things
happen and become a reality.The reason
that I say this is because I operated like that when I shot first feature film
and didn’t want anyone telling me what could or couldn’t do.

As a result, I got the feature film shot, but I learned a
lot of hard lessons along the way.I
went in without a plan (with the exception of the script and shooting
schedule), and got sidetracked on things I could control, and then there were
the issues that I couldn’t control.

With that being said, I noticed upon reviewing Chuck
Blakeman’s website, I liked hi analogy of “pictures vs. films”.Being a filmmaker I agree with his statement,
but what really caught my attention is what he said, “is to see trends, not
numbers.” (Blakemen, 2011) and those individuals would have to “look at the
whole movie to get an idea of what they are saying” (Blakemen, 2011).Meaning, don’t just look at certain parts,
try to look at the whole picture and with that look at each element to make a
sound decision when creating and executing your business plans.The key idea is execution.

I agree with both Brotherton and Blakeman because they both
have opposing, but mutual goals of getting things done when action is
taken.It’s just that they go about
getting things done differently.I believe
that making a plan (allowing room for error) and taking action is the key to
creating a successful business.

Lastly, the statement that Blakeman mentioned on his website
made the most sense, “Watch
the movies of your business to see how you’re doing and you’ll have the
confidence to keep going…” (Blakeman, 2011).Additionally, Chuck Blakeman made valid point stating, “It’s not that we shouldn’t plan,
but that we should plan more after we’re already moving and less before we move”
(Blakeman, 2010).Chuck’s statement
resonates with the both the philosophy of making plans and starting and running
a business.Taking action is the key.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

With the advent of George Lucas releasing yet another
version of the Star Wars saga, this time on Blu-Ray, there are fans crying out
in an uproar about changes that he’s made to the films (sigh…again). As far as I’m concerned, he can do whatever
he wants to do with his films. He owns the rights. People, please, get over it!

I know I’ve Star Wars at least a million times, since I was
a kid and I still have not gotten tired of watching them. It’s interesting to see what new changes that
Lucas has made with his latest edition.
There are some cases of leaks on the internet with Darth Vader saying
“Noooooo…!” during the climactic events of Return of the Jedi, and as usual,
right on cue, there are the fans who want to keep it in its pure form on how it was originally
presented during their childhood. To all
those naysayers, GET OVER IT! If you
want to cry and complain about someone else’s film, then go make your own and
then come back and complain! I’m pretty
sure there are people out there that are never going to get over their
childhood film being altered again.
Another thing I would have to say is GET A LIFE! There are more things
in life to complain about than someone changing their vision of a particular
film or films that really doesn’t have any relevance other than
entertainment value.

In conclusion, I know I’m pretty harsh about these critics
who want to bash Lucas for altering his films again. At this point, I could care less, because it’s not my film, it's his. I think a lot of people have lost sight
of that, and they should be focusing on their own lives because after you have
hit the “stop” button on your Blu-Ray player (or whatever player you prefer
VHS, DVD, digital…) life still has to go on, whether you like it or not.